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One day in 1956, the Irish civil servant TK Whitaker had a jolt when he saw the cover of Dublin Opinion magazine. An illustration showed an empty Ireland, beside the text “Shortly Available: Undeveloped Country, Unrivalled Opportunities, Magnificent Views, Political and Otherwise, Owners Going Abroad”. Ireland’s model of economic and emotional autarky had failed. Nearly

The tap water in Ben Archard’s apartment in the Herne Hill neighbourhood of south London flows through toxic lead pipes, increasing the risk of brain damage to his children and prompting him to pay for bottled drinking water. Tests carried out by the local authority this year revealed that more than half of the 96

Shell has announced record profits for a second consecutive quarter and a $6bn share buyback scheme as the fallout from the war in Ukraine generates bumper earnings for the world’s oil and gas majors. Europe’s largest oil company posted adjusted earnings — the profit measure most closely tracked by analysts — of $11.5bn in the

British Gas owner Centrica has called for the UK government to provide more support for households hammered during the energy crisis even as it reinstated its dividend for the first time since 2020 and profits surged fivefold. Chris O’Shea, chief executive, warned that the UK was “facing what is likely to be a difficult winter” with

EDF has reported a record €5.3bn first-half loss and warned that the financial hit from outages at its nuclear plants would worsen in the months ahead, just as the French government prepares to take full control of the utility. The company on Thursday forecast that its output problems, exacerbated by unexpected shutdowns at some reactors

Twitter is struggling with staff departures, falling morale and reduced spending by marketers as Elon Musk’s on-off pursuit of the social media company hits its $4.5bn-a-year advertising business. Company insiders, former staffers and ad industry executives have told the Financial Times that chief executive Parag Agrawal is leading an increasingly fraught effort to keep the

Since the Federal Reserve in March embarked on what has become the fastest pace of interest rate rises since 1981, it has provided painstaking detail about its future plans to tighten monetary policy. On Wednesday, that changed, with chair Jay Powell announcing the US central bank would shy away from offering an official running commentary

Beijing is seeking to mobilise up to Rmb1tn ($148bn) of loans for stalled property developments, in its most ambitious attempt to revive the debt-stricken sector and mollify home buyers who are boycotting mortgage repayments after lengthy construction delays. China’s property sector accounts for about one-third of total output in the world’s second-largest economy. The industry’s

Ford overcame supply chain challenges to report higher vehicle sales and reaffirm its outlook for the year, but is “actively looking” to offset costs as inflationary pressures mount. The automaker reported revenue of $40.2bn in the second quarter, a 50 per cent jump from the same period last year, thanks to a 35 per cent

Gas and electricity bills for the most vulnerable households in Britain are predicted to soar to an average of £500 a month in January, stoking the cost of living crisis and increasing the pressure on the government to act to save millions of families from energy poverty. The warning from consultancy BFY Group came as

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark policy rate by 0.75 percentage points for the second month in a row on Wednesday as it doubled down on its aggressive approach to taming soaring inflation despite early signs the US economy is starting to lose steam. At the end of its two-day policy meeting, the Federal Open

Wall Street equity markets rallied on Wednesday after reassuring earnings reports from tech titans Microsoft and Alphabet soothed markets ahead of a crucial US interest rate decision later in the day. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite US stock index gained 2.7 per cent, with the tech sector rising on relief that inflation and signs of an

Has the high price of food passed a peak? Even before the UN-brokered grain deal between Kyiv and Moscow gave the green light last week for shipments to leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, food commodity prices had been plummeting. Fears of recession, a bumper harvest in Russia and hopes of revived grain trade flows have

The writer is professor of corporate law at the University of Cambridge The Financial Reporting Council has announced a fresh review of the UK Corporate Governance Code, indicating that it will strengthen and expand it. The FRC, likely to be absorbed soon into a new, more powerful regulator — the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority

When two trains are heading for collision, the switch operator puts them on different tracks. Alas, in geopolitics it is up to the drivers to take evasive action. In the case of the US and China, each questions the other’s ability to drive trains. History offers us little hope that looming trainwrecks will organically resolve

The world’s biggest oil and gas companies are generating more money than ever while spending relatively little of it. European supermajors BP, Shell and TotalEnergies have each pledged to become green businesses over the next three decades but are still investing only a fraction of their capital on renewable energy. With each expected to report

Norway’s Equinor and Spain’s Iberdrola revealed bumper profits on Wednesday as the energy groups benefited from turmoil in commodity markets in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. State-controlled Equinor said it would return an additional $3bn to shareholders as it reported adjusted pre-tax earnings of $17.6bn in the three months to the end of

European gas prices jumped further on Wednesday after Russia followed through on its threat to make further cuts in gas supplies to the region. Gas prices rose 12 per cent early on Wednesday and have risen by more than a third this week from already extremely elevated levels as Europe struggles to fill gas storage

Lloyds Banking Group has beaten quarterly profit estimates and updated full-year guidance as interest rate rises and an increase in mortgages boosted the UK lender. Second-quarter pre-tax profit rose to £2.04bn, inching up from £2.01bn a year earlier but beating consensus of £1.6bn. Revenues for the three months to June rose 10 per cent to

Deutsche Bank has ditched an already reduced target for cost cuts this year as Germany’s largest lender warned that it was braced for “higher-than-expected bank levies, inflation, unforeseen costs related to the war in Ukraine and litigation matters”. The combination of factors has rendered its ambition of bringing costs down to 70 per cent of